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1% Travel Guide: Los Angeles

By Playboy.com StaffAugust 15, 2012

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The world's most exclusive travel guide heads to the City of Angels.

The last few months of fame, fortune and jet-setting have yielded some unexpected though thrilling experiences as you adjusted to your newfound socioeconomic position amongst the country’s elite. Your new taste for adventure and style has left you in some spectacularly brilliant situations, from a stare-off with a leopard in Africa to the treetops of Nicaragua, or finding beauty (in a Marilyn-esque shape) in the foothills of Tuscany.

After your morning jog around Beverly Hills to admire the perfectly sculpted celebrity vixens, you crash on the couch, flip on the television and switch on the iPad to peruse your next escape. After a few short clicks you’ve settled on the French Alps when an emergency bulletin stretches across the television informing you that not one but two more of those Icelandic volcanos whose names no one knows how to pronounce have flipped their literal lids once again.

You’re still itching to get out of your neighborhood, and you have a couple of options: drive south to the west coast of Mexico, where you’ve heard a few nice places have set up shop, or head over to Napa Valley, where you can either hole up in a resort or go wine-seeking. However, a third option pops into your mind — what about a staycation? Not one of those lollygagging ones around a city like they do in New York, but an honest-to-god resort in the city. After a quick check of Twitter provides some advice from the notoriously picky Lady Gaga, you decide upon the Westlake Village Inn on the outskirts of town.

Driving up through the gates, the Westlake Village Inn appears to be a small but comfortable enclave set on about a dozen and a half acres of pristine landscaped property with a private lake and tennis club, situated steps away from the golf course. You’re relieved at the quiet that seems to fall over the Mediterranean-style buildings. Upon checking into your luxury villa, a steal starting at just $1500 per night, your two-story, 1,500 square-foot suite welcomes you with a chilled bottle of champagne served by your private butler while you relax on the balcony alongside a few cheeses the chef has sent up for you to sample. Paradise —only a short drive away. It’s going to be a good week.

Throughout your week of luxury, it becomes quickly apparent why the rich and famous choose to make this their local home away from home. As you relax with some new investor friends in the villa’s living room, serenaded by the classical pianist who beckons to your baby grand on a whim after way too many cocktails from your private wet bar, the stress from the day’s epic tee-off slips away, replaced by a feeling of definite content.

Although eating in your private palace can be an enjoyable experience each morning, you prefer to spend the evenings at the Euro-style Mediterraneo restaurant, which overlooks the inn’s private lake. Your favorite fare by far is the brick oven–roasted branzino or the rib eye with truffle mac and cheese — oh, how you remember the days Kraft Macaroni tasted like god. After dinner, you enjoy a martini at the hotel’s nightclub and lounge, Bogie’s, where can choose to indulge in a private cabana overlooking the lake or dance the night away. As you pack up the following day, you feel refreshed, pumped and ready to hit the open road. Where to next? Who knows? Just another chapter in the One Percent Travel Guide.